Fantasy Book Critic: Spider-Man 3 and other Tidbits

So the third Spider-Man film opened over the weekend, and, as expected, the movie broke a bunch of records including: highest global box office opening ever ($382 million worldwide), best international opening ($231 million from 29 countries), biggest North American opening ($151 million), best single worldwide day (Saturday, May 5 – 117 million), best single domestic day (Friday, May 4 - $59 million), and biggest US average per theatre ($35 thousand), not to mention breaking various IMAX records for single day, opening weekend gross and overall international gross.

Personally, I was disappointed with the movie and felt that it was the weakest of the three. I liked the original Spider-Man, partly because it was the first, and partly because it just exuded a certain charm. Still, it was a flawed film and I thought that Spider-Man 2 took all of the elements that made the first one so enjoyable and enhanced them while fixing most of the problems, and delivering a movie that was superior to the original in many different areas. Alas, the third one tries to take everything good from the first two and create this grand, emotionally-driven finale that one-ups its predecessors. Instead, we get this disjointed affair that tries to juggle drama, humor, heroic action and camp, all of which never works as a whole, though there were a few funny scenes involving Bruce Campbell & J. Jonah Jameson. Overall, the story just tries to do too much, the flow of the movie is erratic, the special effects over the top & unconvincing, and I’m actually sorry that I paid money see this. All I can say is, if they do a fourth Spider-Man, aside from Tobey Maguire, J.K. Simmons, Elizabeth Banks, and some others, I would recast all of the characters and get all new writers/director to inject some much-needed freshness into the franchise.

Despite all of the broken records, I just feel that Spider-Man 3 is a mediocre film, so I'm pretty interested to see how the movie holds up in the box office in the coming weeks, especially against other high-profile sequels, like the upcoming Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. We'll just have to wait for the numbers...

Miscellaneous News: “The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” by Irish author Michael Scott, the first book in a six-part fantasy epic aimed toward young readers, is due out May 22, 2007 with the entire series already optioned for film with New Line Productions. To top that, Michael Scott sold the rights to “Otherworld”, another forthcoming novel, to Kopelson Entertainment (The Devil’s Advocate, U.S. Marshals) based on a 15-page treatment, with Scott writing the screenplay.

Following the success of such film adaptations as Sin City and 300, Warner Bros. looks to try their luck with another property from noted comic book writer/artist Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil), this time with “Ronin”. Hopefully the movie will stay as true to the source material as the Sin City and 300 adaptations did.

Next up for Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, is the film adaptation of “The Lovely Bones” by author Alice Sebold, which will be co-produced by Jackson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Lord of the Rings collaborators Philippa Boyens & Fran Walsh.

Yet another Michael Crichton novel is being adapted, this time “The Andromeda Strain” as a TV miniseries with filmmaker brothers Tony & Ridley Scott producing.

Speaking of television, ABC recently announced that their multiple award-winning (Emmys, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, etc.) drama Lost will end in 2010. So, after this year’s season finale, there will be approximately 48 episodes left that will be aired in the next three seasons as 16-episode arcs. Personally, I think this is a fabulous move, which gives the writers plenty of time to sort out how they will answer all of the questions and conclude the show in a satisfactory manner.

Book News: For Steven Erikson fans, “Reaper’s Gale” the latest volume in the outstanding Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series was finally released yesterday (May 7, 2007) in the UK, with the Canadian edition due out June 26, 2007. US readers unfortunately will have to wait some years before it’s published here, though I’d recommend The Book Depository if you want to buy the book now at an affordable price.

Just a reminder to those who may not have seen it yet, but over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, there’s a GIVEAWAY for the upcoming “Kushiel’s Justice” by Jacqueline Carey, so be sure to check that out and look for an interview with Ms. Carey here on Fantasy Book Critic next week…